I sat at the table in the cafe, taking another drink of my almost gone bubble tea. I get fidgety when I'm nervous, and reading wasn't helping calm me down.

The note Kai passed me in class, the one where he asked me to meet him as he had something to tell me, showed that he should have been here a couple of minutes ago. Not that I've been here waiting a couple of minutes. I've been waiting half an hour. Because I have nothing to do after school. So I figured I'd get here early and read a little, but I had no idea what he wanted to tell me, and I was getting a little anxious. I was okay at first, but as time approached for him to arrive, I started suspecting everyone that walked in was him.

What could he possibly need to talk to me about?

I took another drink and stared out the windows again, and I finally saw him. When he walked in we met eyes and he nodded his head, giving a small smile signaling he saw me before going up to the counter to get a drink. I shoved my book back in my bag, nerves spiking. I had never met one of my classmates outside of school like this before, meeting up somewhere before going home. While I couldn't be sure this was a friendly meeting, he didn't look angry. A little hope sparked within me.

"Sorry," Kai said, taking the seat opposite me. "I usually meet with my friends after school so I had to go see them, but I couldn't get away as fast as I thought I could."

"That's okay," I said as he gave me an apologetic smile. I gave him a small reassuring one back.

We were silent after that. I kept my eyes mostly on my drink, clutching it between my hands. I stole a few glances of him, trying to gauge his mood, try and see if there was anything about how he was acting that would give a clue about what he wanted to tell me. He had his drink in one hand, held up to his mouth as he took a drink, but didn't lower the cup. He was leaned forward, his other arm on the table as he rested his weight on it. He wasn't looking at me, but off another direction. When his eyes did flicker to mine, I dropped my gaze back to my cup, feeling heat creep into my face.

I didn't remember him being that good looking.

"Sorry about what I said the other day," I practically mumbled to my drink, when the silence started getting too awkward. "I got some bad advice"

"But it was a compliment, right?" he asked.

I glanced back up at him, and he didn't seem offended, just curious. Taking that as a good sign, I felt less awful about it.

"Well, yes," I answered, and he smiled, catching me off guard. "But it was weird." I blurted, feeling more heat creep onto me face.

"That doesn't make it bad," he said, probably trying to make me feel better, but my feelings stubbornly refused to be comforted. 

"My name is Soo Young, by the way," I said, realizing we hadn't actually introduced ourselves yet. I only assumed his name was Kai because that girl called him that, but it sounded more like a nickname. Maybe it was something only close friends or other certain people called him. Maybe I was supposed to call him by his real name, but I didn't know what that was. I seriously doubted he knew my name, either, as I was pretty invisible at school thanks to my lack of socializing.

"I know," he said, still smiling as my mouth fell open a little from surprise: how in the world would he have known that? "Im Soo Young. I remember from the beginning of the year." Oh, I thought, right. We did roll call at the beginning of the year. I guess people usually try to remember the names of the people they sit next to. That would make sense. "I guess you don't remember mine?"

I didn't want to call him Kai and that be wrong, so I didn't say anything about that. Instead, my shoulders rose up and I gave him a sheepish and apologetic look. I actually hadn't bothered to remember anyone's name. 

"My name's Kim Jong In, but people usually call me Kai," he said, smile faltering a little. Whoops. "I guess we haven't really talked much before yesterday..." he trailed off, and the awkward silence returned.

He had set his drink down at this point, and folded his arms together, leaning against them, again not looking at me. I had put my hands in my lap, fidgeting them out of his sight.

"So what did you want to tell me? You said in your note that there was something, and that's why you wanted to meet, right?" I asked, figuring we should just get to the point of this thing, as beating around the bush only lead to me embarrassing myself.

At my question, he suddenly got tense. Kai sat back in his chair, put his hands in his lap, and stared down for a second, I assumed thinking over how to word what he wanted to say. I immediately became stiff as well, unsure what he would need to tell me that would make him like that, especially after he had been nice for the short time we had been here. I looked up to his eyes, trying to read his expression, and saw that he was blushing. It was faint, and I almost missed it, but sure enough there was some pink in his cheeks. That, accompanied with his embarrassed look, was oddly quite adorable. 

He looked back up at me, and I reflexively averted my eyes back down, taking another drink of my tea. My phone flashed a message off to the side. It was my mom asking me where I was, and then I noticed the time and realized it would be dinner soon, so I couldn't stay for much longer. Hopefully whatever he needed to say wouldn't take too long.

"I just wanted to let you know that," he began, and I thought I heard a slight waver in his voice. I looked back up at him when he began speaking, and my eyes locked with his steady gaze. Neither of us looked away, and I felt my heart flutter and my stomach drop. I was slightly ashamed to have reacted so strongly to something so simple, something people were always supposed to do when they talked to each other. It wasn't something born entirely from my social anxiety, which could be considered a good thing, but it was still something unwelcome. It all stemmed from the way he was looking at me. He was looking at me unwaveringly, extremely focused. My social anxiety reared it's ugly head from having someone give me so much of their attention all at once, and the other part, well, I also kind of liked that he was looking at me like that.

"That I like you."

I didn't say anything at first, letting his words sink in. He likes me? He couldn't possibly mean romantically. This was our first time talking, he wouldn't know much about me other than that I like to read. And his face, but I'm sure a lot of girls do, so that doesn't actually say much about me.

He likes me?

Maybe he didn't mean anything special by it, just exactly what he said. He likes me. He must be saying that what little he knows about me, he likes. It must have just come out wrong, like when I said I liked his face. Maybe he was trying to do that whole 'complimenting them' thing too. If that's true, then that must mean he wants to be friends. I couldn't help but smile at that thought, and I saw him returning it, his face melting into a beautiful smile. Encouraged by that, and thinking about how my parents said I need to work on communicating more as well as socializing, I decided to let him know what I thought about him as well.

"I like you too," I said, my heart fluttering. My nerves immediately set back in as I realized what I had done. It probably wasn't a big deal, letting someone you think is cool know that you think they're cool. For me, though, it felt a lot like opening up, and I didn't like that. I don't like letting people know how much like them, or how much I care about them (not that I particularly care about Kai, I just met him), which has been what's led to my lack of communication, which I definitely have to agree with my parents is actually a problem, though I wouldn't let them know I agreed.

I do have my reasons for it, but it's still a problem.

"Then-" Kai began, but my phone lit up with another message from my mom, and I knew it was time to go.

"Sorry, my mom's texting me to get home. Dinner's probably ready," I said, grabbing my bag and hauling it up on my shoulders as I stood up.

"But-" He tried again, a strange look on his face.

"I can't stay, I'm sorry," I said as I grabbed my now nearly empty cup of tea and started heading towards the door. He started asking me something as I down the last little bit, but I couldn't hear him very clearly of the noise from the tea going up my straw. I didn't have anymore time though, so I gambled and called "sure" back over my shoulder, hoping that was the right answer to whatever his question was.